The present invention relates to bidirectional remote control systems and, more particularly, to a bidirectional remote control system in which an electronic appliance to be controlled by a remote control holds information to be displayed on the remote control and transmits the information to the remote control, while the remote control displays this information, thus allowing the electronic appliance to be controlled.
Recently, remote control units widely used in electrical appliances or the like have been enabled to fulfill various functions in terms of appliance control by remote control units, thanks to the implementation of bidirectional communications.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication HEI 6-335069 (hereinafter, referred to as Prior Art 1) has disclosed a technique that, for controlling a plurality of appliances with one remote control, information about currently controllable appliances is obtained by implementing transmission and reception with target appliances.
In this Prior Art 1, as shown in FIG. 11, when the user has issued a request for controlling main units 1, 2 of appliances toward a start-of-use request input section 9 of a transmission unit 3, the transmission unit 3 performs an identification signal generation request to the main units 1, 2 via an identification-signal generation request section 10 and a transmission-unit transmitting circuit 6.
The main units 1, 2, in response to this generation request, generate identification signals by identification signal generating sections 11, respectively, and transmit the signals from main-unit transmitting circuits 4 to the transmission unit 3.
In the transmission unit 3, upon reception of the identification signals from the main units 1, 2 by an identification signal receiving section 13, the name of an appliance from which the transmission unit 3 is currently receiving a signal is extracted by a control-candidate extracting section 15 from management data of an identification signal management section 14 that manages the appliance name corresponding to the received identification signal as a pair, and then the extracted appliance name is displayed on a control-candidate display section 16.
Thereafter, when the user selects a control-target appliance by operating a control-target selecting section 17, transmission mode is changed by a transmission mode changing section 18 in order to generate a control signal directed to the appliance, while control command is changed by a control command changing section 19 with respect to the input of the start-of-use request input section 9 and besides contents of this control are displayed on a control command display section 20. Thus, the user is enabled to obtain information about currently operable appliances.
Also, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication HEI 5-231704 (hereinafter, referred to as Prior Art 2) has disclosed a technique that information held by a main unit is transmitted to a wireless remote control and contents of the information are displayed on a display section of the remote control. In more detail, while a signal output terminal of the main unit and a signal input terminal of the remote control are kept in contact with each other, an information transmission request is issued from the remote control to the main unit, by which signal transmission and reception is performed through these terminals. In this technique, the remote control displays received information on the display section, by which the information held on the main unit side is displayed on the remote control side.
Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication HEI 6-121380 (hereinafter, referred to as Prior Art 3) has disclosed a technique that the state of a controlled appliance is displayed on a bidirectional remote control. In this Prior Art 3, the remote control comprises a key input section for inputting a command or the like, a ROM for storing code data corresponding to respective keys, a memory for temporarily storing therein code data read from the ROM according to an inputted key, a transmitting section for transmitting code data that are temporarily stored, a control section for controlling the individual sections, a receiving section for receiving a response signal from the controlled appliance, a decoding section for extracting code data from a received response signal, and a display section for providing a specified display based on the code data of the response signal. The controlled appliance comprises a receiving section for receiving a signal transmitted by the remote control, a decoding section for extracting code data from the received signal, a memory for temporarily storing therein this code data, an appliance functional section for implementing functions of the appliance itself, a control section for controlling the individual sections, a transmitting section for, after controlling the appliance functional section based on the code data temporarily stored in the memory, transmitting specified code data, and a ROM for storing therein this code data.
The technique disclosed in Prior Art 1 is so designed that, after an appliance is identified according to an identification signal transmitted from the appliance main units 1, 2, an appliance to be controlled is selected from among the currently controllable appliances, then transmission mode is changed in order to generate a control signal for the appliance, and contents of control for the appliance are displayed. As a result, there has been a problem that control information for all the appliances that could be used, including even those that normally would not be used, as well as display information corresponding to the control information has to be stored on the remote control side.
Also, the technique disclosed in Prior Art 2 is only that information transferred from the main unit is displayed on the remote control side, i.e., only that the status of the main unit is shown, other than information about buttons, icons or the like necessary to control the main unit. Thus, there has been a problem that the main unit cannot be controlled by using the contents of the display.
Further, the technique disclosed in Prior Art 3 is that a command transmitted from the remote control side is received by the appliance side, the received control command is executed, thereafter specified response data is transmitted to the remote control side, and then a display is made based on the response data received by the remote control side. Accordingly, there has been a problem that although a response to control can be displayed, the main unit cannot be controlled by using the displayed information, as in the case of like Prior Art 2.
The present invention having been achieved with a view to solving the foregoing problems, an object of the invention is to provide a bidirectional remote control system which allows an electronic appliance to be operated even without previously registering information about the electronic appliance on the remote control side, by utilizing information transmitted from the electronic appliance side. Another object of the invention is to provide a bidirectional remote control system which allows the electronic appliance side control to be implemented without depending on the display area of the remote control.
In order to achieve the object, there is provided a bidirectional remote control system comprising an electronic appliance and a remote control that controls the electronic appliance, wherein
the electronic appliance comprises: a display information storage section for storing therein display information for displaying buttons, icons or the like necessary to control the electronic appliance main unit; and a transmitting section for transmitting display information stored in the display information storage section to the remote control, and
the remote control comprises: a received information storage section for receiving and storing therein display information transmitted from the electronic appliance; a display section for displaying display information stored in the received information storage section; a position detecting section for detecting an operation of the buttons, icons or the like displayed on the display section; and a transmitting section for transmitting information about a button, icon or the like the operation of which has been detected by the detecting section, to the electronic appliance as a control signal. Therefore, by transmitting display information stored in the display information storage section to the remote control side, it is enabled to display buttons, icons or the like which are necessary for the remote control to control the electronic appliance. Then, by an operation of these buttons, icons or the like on the display, the operated button or icon information is transmitted to the electronic appliance, and then the electronic appliance executes the control responsive to the received button or icon information. That is, it becomes possible to control the electronic appliance only by the user operating button or icon information transmitted from the electronic appliance and displayed on the display section of the remote control.
Also, there is provided a bidirectional remote control system comprising an electronic appliance, and a remote control which receives and displays display information transmitted from the electronic appliance and which, upon detecting an operation of displayed buttons, icons or the like, transmits information about a button, icon or the like the operation of which has been detected, to the electronic appliance, wherein
the remote control comprises: a display capability transmitting section for transmitting display capability such as screen size that can be displayed on the remote control main unit, to the electronic appliance, and
the electronic appliance comprises: a display information changing section for receiving display capability such as the size of the display screen transmitted from the remote control, and changing the display information about the buttons, icons or the like transmitted to the remote control side according to the received display capability. That is, since the electronic appliance can be informed of display capability of the remote control such as the size of the display screen, the electronic appliance is enabled to transmit, to the remote control, display information in a form suited to the display screen of the remote control by utilizing the display capability of the remote control.
Also, there is provided a bidirectional remote control system comprising an electronic appliance, and a remote control for receiving and displaying display information transmitted from the electronic appliance and, upon detecting an operation of displayed buttons, icons or the like, transmitting information about a button, icon or the like the operation of which has been detected, to the electronic appliance, wherein
the remote control comprises: a received-information display acceptance/rejection deciding section for deciding whether or not display information transmitted from the electronic appliance is beyond the display capability of screen size that can be displayed on the remote control main unit; and a display information changing section for, if it is decided by the received-information display acceptance/rejection deciding section that the display information is beyond the display capability, changing the transmitted display information into a form that is displayable for the remote control main unit. That is, even if the display information transmitted from the electronic appliance has such a size as cannot be displayed on the remote control side, the display information can be changed into such a size as can be displayed on the remote control side.
Also, there is provided a bidirectional remote control system comprising an electronic appliance, and a remote control for receiving and displaying display information transmitted from the electronic appliance and, upon detecting an operation of displayed buttons, icons or the like, transmitting information about a button, icon or the like the operation of which has been detected, to the electronic appliance, wherein
the electronic appliance comprises: a detection use display information transmitting section for transmitting detection use display information for detecting display capability of the remote control, to the remote control; a remote-control display capability detecting section for deciding the display capability such as size of a display screen of the remote control by discriminating a response signal from the remote control in response to the detection use display information; and a display information changing section for changing the display information such as buttons, icons or the like transmitted to the remote control, according to a result of the decision by the remote-control display capability detecting section. That is, by deciding a response signal from the remote control in response to the detection use display information transmitted to the remote control by the remote-control display capability deciding section, display information can be transmitted in a form suited to the display capability of the remote control even if the remote control has no function of transmitting its display capability.